This Week: Sacramento Pride marks 30th anniversary of Stonewall Riots

Thousands of gay-rights supporters are expected to gather Saturday on Capitol Mall for the 30th annual Sacramento Pride parade and festival. Pride parades in Sacramento and around the country commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York in June 1969, an event that marked the start of the gay-rights movement.

Mary Czech and Richard Burns of St. Mark's United Methodist Church ride in the Sacramento Pride parade on Saturday, June 15, 2013. Some parade watchers discussed the U.S. Supreme Court's pending decision on Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California.
lsterling@sacbee.com

Thousands of gay-rights supporters are expected to gather Saturday on Capitol Mall for the 30th annual Sacramento Pride parade and festival.

Pride parades in Sacramento and around the country commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York in June 1969, an event that marked the start of the gay-rights movement. The local events are organized by the Sacramento LGBT Community Center. On its website, the center cites recent victories in its longtime quest for equal rights for members of the LGBT community. These include court rulings that legalized same-sex marriage in California and many other states and the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

The Pride events are the largest source of funding for the nonprofit LGBT Center’s programs, which include a free legal clinic, services for at-risk youths and HIV/AIDS prevention.

The parade is free and starts from Third and N streets at 11 a.m. The festival lasts from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Capitol Mall and includes performances by British pop artist Neon Hitch and singer-songwriter Tom Goss, as well as a kids zone and a dance pavilion. Tickets are $10.

– Mary Lynne Vellinga

In the News

United Way collects toilet paper for nonprofits

The United Way’s sixth annual Toilet Paper Drive for local nonprofits takes place Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Cal Expo. Donors are encouraged to drive up to the main entrance at 1600 Exposition Blvd. to drop off rolls of toilet paper, a staple on which nonprofits spend hundreds to thousands of dollars each year. “At a dollar a roll, this drive will help more than a hundred local nonprofits save $240,000,” said United Way President and CEO Stephanie McLemore Bray. “Every dollar counts, and so does every roll.”

The Sacramento Tree Foundation is offering the public a free tree tour of McKinley Park in east Sacramento. The tour, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, is led by a certified arborist and begins on the west lawn at the Shepard Garden and Art Center. Participants with a tablet or smartphone will be shown how to identify trees, edit data and conduct electronic mapping of trees with GreenprintMaps.

The Sacramento REI store at 1790 Expo Parkway is hosting a free information session to planning trips to Desolation Wilderness, 64,000 acres of alpine lakes, forests, waterfalls and granite outcroppings in El Dorado County just southwest of Lake Tahoe. The discussion session with Desolation Wilderness volunteers and a wilderness program manager takes place Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the store.

Info: (916) 924-8900

Glenn Hall Park hosts Pops in the Park concert

Television newscaster Edie Lambert and husband Lloyd Levine, a former state assemblyman, emcee Friday’s Pops in the Park concert at Glenn Hall Park, 5415 Sandburg Drive in Sacramento, from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday. The series of free summer concerts raises money through advertising, sponsorships, and food and beverage sales to support neighborhood parks. Friday’s musical act is The Count, a rock and rhythm-and-blues band.

Gasoline prices in the Sacramento area and statewide have been slowly inching downward from late-April highs. Even so, motorists in many jurisdictions throughout California are still paying more than $4 a gallon for unleaded regular. On Tuesday, AAA will release its monthly gas price survey, breaking down at-the-pump costs at locales throughout the state.

The annual Pony Express “re-ride” kicks off Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. in Old Sacramento, where the first of more than 600 riders and horses will launch a 10-day, 24-hour nonstop postal relay to St. Joseph, Mo. The event commemorates the Pony Express operation that ferried mail between the two cities for 19 months in 1860 and 1861.